Paving Dirt Roads
by Rakusa
Summary: What do you get when you have this mix: A Curse, not-so-typical cop story, set in dual locations and ensuing romance? This story!
1. Episode 0

Paving Dirt Roads

5.23.2013

Summary: What do you get when you have this mix: A Curse, not-so-typical cop story, set in dual locations and ensuing romance? This story!

AN: This story is going to read as a series.

AN2: Serena's rankings are going to be American and some might be in British. Not telling which are which a the moment.

* * *

Episode 0

–

"Congratulations Detective, you've been promoted." A hand slapped onto her her shoulder like a child's toy and Serena's head turned towards her captain.

"Promoted?" She asked trying to make sense of it. "I've only been with this division now for six months."

"And in that six months you've shown exemplary capabilities. Your record at tracking down the criminals you've been assigned have been staggering. I don't think we've seen your record for closing cases in a long time and definitely not in the short time frame."

She was kicking herself for overdoing her job. She had set the bar too high and now it was going to do all the kicking she wanted for her. "Well thank you boss, I wasn't expecting a promotion."

"You'll start D2 on Monday, why don't you finish up with the cases you can and make it easier for your replacement to try and fill your shoes." The man laughed. "Though I think it will be very hard for whoever comes next."

"Will do." He made to leave but she turned and raised her voice just slightly. "Sir? What department are you moving me to?" Please be narcotics, please be narcotics, please be-

"Homicide." When she paled slightly he laughed. "Would you rather I put you on cold cases? You'll have to earn your way up to that one. Or rather down, I suppose. Either way you need to spend a year on fresh homicide cases before you can move departments. It was the only opening I had and you'll fit in perfectly. They're all a bit... different, like you."

Nobody was different like she was but she gave a short nod. "All right sir. Thank you sir." She would somehow find the ability to survive a year in homicide.

Serena turned back to the caseload on her desk. Currently she was filling in with follow up traffic accidents. She didn't mind it, it was usually cut and dry. There were occasions where there was something going on beyond what was said but most of the time it was unraveling who was to blame for the accident and she usually didn't have to dig too deep. She was really only put on the case when the accident resulted in serious injury or death.

She had wanted narcotics because she would prefer to take the slow path for once. Just because they knew who did what when didn't mean they could move right away. They had to figure out a way to go up the ladder towards the ones pulling the strings. That was interesting. That made her use her mind for something more than what she was doing now.

The last case required her to just sign some paperwork when one of the officers brought her the report. It seemed legit and after looking through the information all of it was there and clear cut. Technology made a lot of this moot anyway.

Serena flipped open her newest case file to land on her desk and she scanned the report. Something here didn't add up and she'd have to go investigate further. She knew she should probably just make a note and move on to her other cases but this one had her lifting up the phone to call down to the junior officer for further details.

The answers she got didn't please her and she pushed away from her desk. She'd have to go first to the scene of the crime and then she'd be knocking on the doors of those involved, maybe even get some witness testimony. She stuck her head in to her boss's office. "I'm tracking down some loose ends. I'll be out for a few hours."

"Bring an officer with you." He held up a finger before she could move away and just pick one up from downstairs. They usually took out fifth year officers as backup unless they knew what kind of situation they were heading into. "Better yet, take Kyle with you. He's getting promoted into your position, better he learns the ropes from the best."

"Sir." She gave a short nod and found the detective in training. He'd passed his exams but he was still waiting back for his interview results. Serena now knew but couldn't say anything. She had to make it seem like she was doing him a favor so if he didn't pass this time he could the next go around. "Officer Ramsey, you'll be with me today."

He pushed to his feet. He was talking with one of the other detectives looking for details about one of their cases and how they were going to handle the special situation. "Sounds good Detective." He turned to the man still working. "Thank you for your insight."

"No problem. Oh, Detective Williams, I hear congratulations will be in order soon."

"I haven't the foggiest clue what you're talking about." Serena played dumb, but she had only found out herself not too long ago. Guess gossip got around quick.

"Right. Anyway don't let it go to your head. You'll probably be stuck in D2 for a long time. That's where most people end up stalling."

"I am not too worried about that. My interest lies in being a good cop, not upward mobility."

He leaned back in his seat as Kyle stood to stand by her side, waiting to go. "Still homicide is a pretty impressive gig to fall into. I hope you don't burn out within the first few weeks."

Homicide, along with narcotics were the golden fields most officers strive to find themselves in. Most stalled in that position as the other detective said, some purposely stuck with it while others continued to grasp at the next wrung in the ladder. She'd be one of the first to fulfill her roster and then transfer to something tamer. She still needed to complete that first year though and she hadn't even started yet. She tilted her head forward. "If you want it, you'll have to earn it. Good thing you'll have another year before you can apply for it. Ramsey, lets go."

The two of them headed out and drove to the intersection just inside their district. She parked and got out of the car. Kyle was a little slower and had to run to catch up to her. "What are we looking for?"

"Street light distances."

"Why?" Kyle had read the report on the way over but he hadn't caught the issues that Serena had. She didn't answer at first, just looking and counting the seconds between each.

"Just go and check the ones across the street to see if their bulbs are intact. I might have to come here again tonight to see if they all work but you might be able to see how old they are due to their clarity."

She did another sweep of the area and then closed her eyes, trying to imagine what the scene had looked like. She didn't have all the information she needed but there was a small amount that she could at least lay the ground work. She heard very little traffic now and knew at night there would be even less. It wasn't a very busy part of the city, in fact except for the nine and five hours this area was pointless to drive through. So what had _two _vehicles been doing in this area at the same time?

When she opened her eyes all the traffic and people that were currently there disappeared to be replaced with empty streets. The vehicles at the scene of the accident dropped down into place. A fiat was in the right lane nearing the intersection when a white van crashed into its side. Original reports said that the van turning left probably thought that the lane was empty. Being so late and so quiet.

The man going through the intersection had said that they saw the van but it had been waiting to turn until they passed.

Routine. Yet it didn't sit right with Serena. The way the van had crushed into the car's side wouldn't leave her. There was very little reason for the van not to see the car by the time those two moved into position. Yes the fiat was small but it wasn't invisible. Not in the way the crash happened at least. Definitely was shady when the van just backed up and went around the fiat, fleeing the scene.

"Lights look relatively new." Kyle announced as he jogged back over to her side, his voice dispersed the images Serena was seeing, making her lose her concentration. But it was enough, she'd seen what she needed to for now. "They don't look brand new though. Want me to go talk to witnesses that might be regular to this corner?"

"You won't find any. Come on." She walked back to her car and slid into the driver's seat and drove further down the road. She cut across when the traffic was clear and then clocked her time in how long it would take going the speed limit from where she had turned around to the intersection. Then she went back again and took a long way around the block, at speed, and pulled back onto the road going the opposite direction. She was frowning as the times almost lined up. Depending how long before they had headed into a parallel road and then if they'd gone faster they might have been able to go one road further and then swing back around to wait for the car to cross their path.

That would mean the van intentionally hit the fiat. That would mean they had known where the fiat was coming from and where it was going and knew the best place to ambush the car.

"What are we doing?" Kyle was surprisingly patient but Serena ignored him. It was time to go visit the victim and question whether or not they had any enemies. Serena hoped for their sake that they didn't. The man's accident might be the first thing to happen if that were the case and there might be more coming their way if demands weren't met.

She drove all the way from the Quarter to River Ridge. All the tree lined homes were grand and spacious. She pulled up to the one her gps told her to and she would have never guessed this was the home the Fiat owners had lived in. It was a bit more upscale than their neighbors in this particular area. "Green-snobs." Kyle muttered before Serena got out of the car to greet the man and woman who were making their way out of the house.

Serena might have agreed with them if she wasn't already focused on something else. "Mr. and Mrs. Tansandri?"

"Yes." The man came forward in front of his wife.

"We're with the NOPD." Serena flipped out her credentials. "We'd like to ask you a few follow up questions."

The suburbs bothered her. Everything was a front and not all of the ones living here agreed with it but were still stuck with the layout. It was the most creative-sucking thing in the universe, living in the nearly identical land as their neighbors. Each with their 1.5 trees in the front yard. She'd take the country any day over this. Only a few brash enough or with enough money split away from the mold, only to be copied and spiraled into the same pattern again. Where was the unique individuality?

"Of course detective." The man was saying holding out his hand to be shook but Serena ignored it and walked towards the garage. He turned and followed her with his eyes. "Would you like to go inside?"

"Go on ahead, Officer Ramsey will be with you. If you wouldn't mind, may I look at the car involved in the accident?"

The couple shared a look. "You may but we've gotten the all clear from someone else in your office saying that they had enough pictures and we could get the repairs done. You won't see the damage anymore." It was the woman's turn to talk.

"That's fine, I won't take long." The man let her in through one of those side garage doors and waited at it while she walked in. "I'll meet you inside. I'll even lock up for you if you're worried about it." Serena turned and wanted the man to leave so she could do her thing in peace.

"Oh, it's fine." He held up his hands in peace. "I'll be inside. Take all the time you need." He backed out and closed the door for her. Serena turned her back on the man and faced the car instead.

The side was smooth and perfectly finished. She ran her hand along the repaired surface allowing her thoughts to drift and re-imagine the impact again and again. Letting her thoughts go back further. Where had this car been before?

Her eyes fluttered quickly as she looked back. Then she pushed herself to her feet having an idea of where to go next. She went into the house and found Kyle scrambling to find questions to ask the couple. "What color was the car that hit you?"

"It was a white van." The man corrected.

"Had you seen this van earlier in the day?"

The husband and wife shared a look and Serena lifted a brow, waiting for their answer. "I don't believe so. But it doesn't mean its not possible. Why? Do you believe it followed us?"

"I want to know what you were doing in the warehouse section of the Quarter that late at night." Serena sat down and leaned her weight onto her elbows. "If the van was following you, there has to be a reason."

"Maybe it was a gang initiation."

"I highly doubt that." Kyle's voice had their eyes shifting in his direction. "They'd use black vehicles, easier to slip into the night with. They also have no reason to be in that area either. Nobody lives near enough to want to buy from there without it being incredibly obvious."

Serena gave a slight incline of her head, he was right. "If he followed me-" The man started again but Serena shook her head. "I'm not sure what the reason could be. It's possible he did."

"You sure it was a man?"

"Of course." The man suddenly sat up straighter as he filtered her words another way. "Think I'm having an affair? I'm not-"

"I'm not, but it does lower the suspect pool by fifty percent." Serena waited for the man to cool off. "Any of your friends own a white van?"

"No- right honey?" He turned his attention to his quiet wife.

"I mean there's several white vans out there now. White's the season's hottest color. The Shanigans just bought a white SUV-mini and a white car."

"Any trouble at work?" Kyle asked, directing the attention elsewhere.

"No." The wife shook her head. "Nothing."

"What is it the both of you do?" Serena lowered her hands to her knees.

"Well Tom's a banker and I work in a genetics research lab."

Serena could see Kyle's attention perk up at that announcement. Only time would tell if he was interested in the man or woman's job choices. "Any family members that are jealous of your success?"

A frown crossed the man's face and her question had them both thinking about it. "I don't believe so. None of them own a white vehicle of any sort."

Serena nodded and then stood up. "Thank you, you've been very helpful. We'll contact you if we find the culprit."

Kyle jumped to his feet as Serena was already half way out the door. "Yeah. Thanks." He shook their hands and ran to catch up with Serena, at the door and opening it. He didn't say anything on the walk to the car, the couple stood watching them leave. Inside the car and on the road again was different though. "We're already leaving? Don't we have more questions?"

"Why waste their time? We already have as much as we need from them. Why have we taken this road trip? What have you learned or put together?"

"That the lights were properly spaced in the accident zone and all were working at the time." He continued not waiting for her affirmative, that much was obvious. "The man was alone in the car but when the hit and run happened the people didn't stop long enough to steal anything, so it was more of a scare tactic than anything else."

Serena's eyes darted over to him. "So not just a hit an run?"

"Your little trip around the block made that much obvious." Kyle's tone turned dry. "I'm a little unsure though why you had to see the car alone."

"I wanted to check something out. Don't worry about that so much." Serena waved him on to continue.

Kyle nodded. "Think it has something to do with the man's job?"

"No." Serena turned off on their way back and headed down a different road than what would bring them back to the precinct.

"The woman's then." Kyle gave another nod. "So it was intended to scare the woman into thinking her family isn't safe. That makes sense, why harm the one that you want to do something for you when you can go after the people they care about."

"Right, so solutions?"

"Go to the workpla-" He glanced up when she suddenly pulled into a parking spot and sure enough, they were already there. "I can see why you've been promoted."

Serena grinned at him as she released her seat-belt. "Officer, you've seen nothing." She got out of the car and walked away from the building and further into the parking lot.

Kyle found himself jogging to catch up with her again. "Where are we going? The office is-" Again his voice died off as she stopped next to a white van. There was red paint at the front of it, small enough that it wouldn't be noticed by anyone that wasn't looking for it. "An office feud?"

"I think that whatever is being worked on in there is very important." Serena had proof, now she needed the reason. This part of the job made her happy. It was something she couldn't just guess at, she had to actually reason it out and get a confession.

"I'll run the registration." Kyle wrote down the plates and headed back towards her car to radio it in. "I'm surprised they kept the car in plain sight."

Serena ran the back of her thumb nail against her eyebrow and looked at him slightly bored. "Why? They were hiding the fact that they were behind it. It didn't matter. The message had been clear."

"They had to know an officer would be looking into it."

Serena shook her head. If another detective had been on the case they might have just signed off on the hit and run. It was common place enough. She just didn't buy the story. She lead the way into the building and flashed her id when they met with a secretary. "Genetic Engineering."

"Fifth floor." The secretary didn't even bother to slow them down, probably used to police coming in and out all the time.

When they got up to the floor they were met by another secretary and a security agent at the door. "We're looking for a Mr. Tantanini."

"He's in room 503." The secretary responded then waved at the security guard to let them through. The guard followed them into the room and the man looked up with some surprise at the intrusion.

"I didn't think you'd be coming here." Mr. Tantanini admitted without prompting.

"Probably thought that nobody would talk." Serena hitched a hip on her end of the desk. "Are you going to come with us willingly?"

"Yes. Let me phone my lawyer real quick."

"We'll do that for you." She gestured with two of her fingers for Kyle to go around to arrest the man. He stood up with his hands in the air and Kyle slid the cuffs onto one wrist before moving it behind the man's back and latching it onto his other hand. He gave the man a quick pat down and then they were going out again. Kyle read him his rights as they rode down in the elevator.

"Who told?" Mr. Tantanini asked once he was seated in the back of the car.

"Your van." Serena said and glanced at him through the rear-view mirror. "No need in having anyone destroy it. We've already towed it and took several pictures. We have ample evidence of your intentions. All that remains is your signed confession and we won't have to drag you through court and you won't have to pay hefty lawyer fees, for this at least. I have a feeling you'll be putting that money to use elsewhere."

"Why'd you do it?" Kyle asked, clearly not seeing the point yet.

The man settled back into his seat and sighed, knowing it was pointless and he'd get better treatment with cooperation. "The treatment we had developed for childhood acne resulted in unforeseen complications."

"Such as?" Kyle prompted, truly curious about all of this genetic stuff. Serena noted this in her mind's catalog of information, he'd be good in something that worked closely with MEs or the private sector, anything that might have common run-ins with science.

"Well... those children grow up and have children of their own."

"Those children have double time acne?" Kyle sounded disappointed.

"Oh nothing as base as that Officer Ramsey." Serena teased. "I have a feeling the results are going to be far more profound to get a coverup with such forethought."

"The lady-detective is right." Serena hated whenever people added lady or madam to a title, they still had the same occupancy, and were still the boss. Unless it was a specific address. She wouldn't want to be called Mr. President, but that was different than talking about her. The Madam President was a redundancy, she was still the President, the first made her sound like a spouse. Even in this day and age though people tried putting females into their perceived spots, below the males. She had to fight to be treated with respect when her skills should have spoken for themselves. Nobody, male or female, were able to do what she could. She was an individual. She ignored most of it, biding her time when she could rub their disbelieving faces in it, always subtly of course, as they were also so subtle about putting her down.

"So what is it?" Kyle pressed. "What happen to those children?"

"They grow something that was previously discarded in our hereditary evolution. The children have tails Mr. Ramsey."

Serena smirked as Kyle's face expressed his disbelief and how the man in the back seat was determined to insult all of them today, despite his appearance of cooperating. "You're kidding!" Kyle exclaimed and turned to look to see if the man was silently laughing at him. The man wasn't. "No way."

"Can you see now why I went to extreme measures to make sure my employees didn't talk? With the low number of patients it couldn't be traced back to me."

"You could have hurt someone Mr. Tantanini." Serena chided. "That was very foolish of you."

"There were no cameras in the area. I felt reasonably sure that my message would get across and I wouldn't have to resort to anything more drastic." He gave a small snort. "My own car giving me away! But surely someone had turned you onto me."

"You did." Serena gave him that information. "You did a swing around and there was absolutely no reason for you to be waiting there for him unless you had known it would be deserted at that time and laid in wait. From there it only took a little digging, anyone they knew with a white van was likely to harm them. Since no family, friends or neighbors had one, it had to be someone they worked with."

The man nodded and closed his eyes. "I'll be out again in two years. In the meantime it'll be minimum security prison and the people in there will give me great connections. I'm not to worried. I'll be out earlier on good behavior."

Serena had to admit that it was probably true. Nobody spoke for the rest of the ride to the precinct. They booked and processed him and then she and Kyle called for lunch. "You did a good job today officer. Some day you'll make a decent detective."

"Thanks for the shining compliment." He responded dryly but she was only teasing, he'd be fine, and fairly soon he would be one. She just didn't want to give it away. "There's something I was wondering about." Kyle put his sandwich down. "Why _did _you check out the car?"

Serena could give him several answers but she only shrugged and took another bite. He was still waiting for her response by the time she swallowed. "See if I couldn't find any more evidence the photographs missed. There's several reasons to repair your car right away and one might be to hide the evidence if you know the person who hit you. Of course their reason held strong too, they probably didn't want to drive around town with a dent or it could have impeded their use of it too. The van couldn't have hit him too hard though, any harder and it would have spun the car or crushed the man inside. I wanted to get a feel for it myself."

Kyle nodded then took up his sandwich again. "Any other cases I should be on the look out for?" His eyes flickered to the stack she still needed to go through.

"The next detective will handle those." Serena pulled a few from the top. "But you can give me your thoughts in the meantime. I think I'll have you shadow me for the next few days, so you can help the detective out when he or she comes into position. Help make the transition smoother."

Kyle gave her a smile that would serve him well as a detective, it told her that he saw right through her and knew the truth. She gave him a wink in response.

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EAN: No, Darien's not driving a Fiat or a white van. He's not even in this chapter. I know. I know. Sad day. He won't be in the next one either, I believe. Well I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. It was just a feet wetter, not a really major case. Next chapter she'll be a D2 and will have been for a few months. (P.S. Just so we're clear, yes, Kyle is Kunzite. No, he's not really a _major_ character, he's just good at his job, as well, and kind of smart).

EAN2: Just so we're clear on one thing in particular, the 'cases' that happen throughout this story aren't real or even intended to be good. A lot of crimes that happen are pretty cut and dry or have really stupid motives or are just accidents, etc. This story isn't going to go away from reality in quite that way for the most part. The rest of this story will. It's not about the cases in general, its about the rest of the story. So its completely a step away from crime dramas on TV and more like Sailor Moon really is. The youma of the week were just distractions and didn't really lead to a point other than just being there and energy gathering. The point was all off screen or the interactions between the characters and how they dealt with the problems. Hope we're all good and I don't get reviews about _that_ in particular. The rest of your feedback is welcomed!


	2. Episode 1

AN: Omnipresent/close 3rd POV, btw, because there's many characters and its important to switch between them, just like a TV show would. I might need to add that this is 1 season and then finito. Like a mini-series more so than a real one. That said however you won't get new characters' POVs until you meet them in an already established POV. Like you'll be getting Kyle's POV because we've already met him in Serena's. Got it? Good.

AN2: Things start becoming clearer this episode.

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Episode 1

–

Serena signed her name on the bottom of her file and placed it in its box along with her partner's report and other evidence. She labeled the box and dated it. Her partner would take it down to the vault, so she set it on his desk and started in on the several other case files that were open and on her desk.

He came into the room and groaned. "How do you always manage to do this to me? I go out for a snack and you've wrapped up another case. The perp just walk in again and confess everything to you?"

Serena laughed and spun around in her chair to look at the movie-star looking blond. He wasn't the worst to look at partners, though personally she thought Kyle and his rugged looks was better, but he was downstairs still doing traffic reports. "We called in his description, remember? A few officers brought him in while you were out. Sorry."

He grumbled and looked through the contents to make sure everything was there. He was a few years older than Serena and had been promoted to D2 six months before she had been. It had been risky setting up two technically rookies together but they'd managed to close a case a week together for the last six months. Apparently the fresh look at things helped. He added his own final thoughts and a signature at the bottom. "Even printed perfectly." He closed the box and held out his hand for the next case. "At least let me stew on it while I bring this one down. I'm going to transfer to a different partner just so you have to make the walk and give someone else a chance to complete a case."

"It was all there, we were just waiting on the pick up. You were just unlucky enough to be out."

Jared took her current report and looked through the case file. "That's pretty cut and dry isn't it? The son shot the father when the father was going for the gun. It was poorly handled and a sad ending but it can be signed off on as well. He's even in custody already."

"The son is young." Serena looked at it again, the file had landed on her desk earlier that morning, it had happened just as the day switched. "It doesn't seem right to me."

"Do you ever just look at a case and think its how your juniors said it happened? The mother was there and saw it all before calling 911."

"I just think there's more. I'm going to go talk to the boy. He's bound to be pretty traumatized and at the very least shouldn't be sitting in a jail with adults. Even if they are in separate cells."

"That's true enough. Wonder what the ADA has to say about it. Surprised she hasn't just released him into his mother's custody. They have the gun so it can't happen again." He indicated the box. "I'll meet you down there if you want to talk to them.

Serena agreed and took her coffee with her down to the holding. She wasn't allowed to talk to the boy without a parent present and they had to call the mom to come back. While she waited she looked at the gun in evidence. She also called up the responding officer. "Did you check it for prints?"

"Well its going to have the kid's on it."

"Did you check it though?" Jared asked coming into the room and instantly having Serena's back.

"No. It seemed straight forward enough to us not to bother."

"Check it." Jared ordered and the gun was taken to be processed again. "What are you thinking, Serena?"

"Well it should have the boy's and the father's, at least in theory right?"

"If the gun was managed to be taken by him before he passed, yes. Or even the mother's if she touched it to get it away from the boy." Jared's eyes narrowed. "You're thinking that the boy's prints won't be on it."

"I'm thinking they will be." Serena countered softly. "And both parents'."

"Then why the game?" He asked his eyes flicking over Serena's face, it seemed he was often learning from her.

"The gun's too big for his hand. He would have to use both hands to pull that trigger and that would be two sets of prints and won't be in very specific locations, like when someone is intending to use it. It'd explain the gunpowder on his hand, and it will also show if the woman slid it out of the way or gripped it. Or even helped to hold the gun and squeezed his finger for him."

"I can't believe you think the mother killed the man and then blamed it on the boy." Jared shook his head in amazement.

"I didn't meet the mother so I might be wrong. But it makes sense. A child of his age would get off without anything other than psych visits to ensure he didn't go off the rails and help him deal with his 'accident'. I don't want to think so negatively but I don't think I'm wrong. She had powder on her hand too. She would be thrown in jail for life. She might be desperate enough to place the blame on her child's shoulders. His name will be hidden from public record."

"At least it will be done before we have to accuse that poor woman of any wrong doing. It's enough that her son is being held until we sign off on his release along with the ADA. Wherever she is."

Serena rolled her eyes at Jared. "Whatever Detective Mathieu." Then she smiled. "Want to place bets? Whoever loses has to do all the paperwork."

"Deal." Jared shook her hand but he probably knew even as he did it that he'd lose, he always lost.

Sure enough the findings were there long before the wife. In fact with the length of time it took for the wife to come in, the more they realized that she was trying to skip town without her son. They put an emergency BOLO out for her.

Jared was off doing paperwork by the time she got dragged into the building and up to their floor to be questioned and booked. "Write down your confession." He handed the woman a pen after handcuffing her to the chair by his desk and kept an eye on her while he finished up his end of the bargain. Serena went to go get celebratory coffee for all of those involved.

She was downstairs giving the arresting officer his drink when her boss came up to Jared. "Two in one day? How have you done it?"

"It wasn't all me sir." Jared gave credit where it was due as the woman was hauled out again and put into the cell her son had once occupied. He was going into a shelter for the night and then in the morning he'd go home with a relative. Serena stopped by to talk to the boy before he left and brought him upstairs to wait with them. She had plenty of coloring books and crayons for the kids, she'd even created a section for them when the parents couldn't find a babysitter.

"Detective Williams is certainly making some changes around here." The chief commented and Jared could only nod. "Keep up the good work."

–

Serena was razzed the next day by others in the squad. "You need to slow it down. You're giving the rest of us a bad wrap. Our cases aren't as easy as yours are."

"It's that woman's touch." Detective Miraz commented with a wink. She was a pretty solid veteran and Serena shrugged,with a smile of thanks briefly shot at the woman.

"Can't help it. I'm just good at my job. If you want, I'll give you all our easy cases and we'll see who closes more."

"You'll take my harder ones then?"

"No, I want to have a cleared desk every night." Serena's grin was wide and the man giving her trouble laughed.

"Touche." He shook his head and went back to work. "Thanks for the coffee by the way." He lifted it in cheers but didn't look up.

"I'm expecting one when you come back after your break later today!" She called out to him as she sagged into her chair. "What do we have today?" Her latest question was to her partner already hard at work.

He looked at her with censure. "Not sure you'll want to be on this one."

She sighed knowing it was going to be rough and motioned for him to pass it over. A dead blond woman was clipped to the report. "This is a cold case."

"We just got a call to check in with the uniforms at this address. I was handed this file and was patched through to this officer by the boss himself. Thinks we're the best team to handle it. I was waiting for you before we go. ME is already on route to the scene."

"Then we better go." Serena pushed to her feet again and clipped in her gun, her badge swung from around her neck.

When she reached for her keys, Jared shook his head. "I'm driving. This might be more than you can handle."

She didn't bother correcting him and telling him that _every _case they personally responded to was more than she could handle. She had nightmares she couldn't shake, each victim playing in her head over and over again in a loop, only getting relief from it when another one entered into the occasion so there were more victims seen but the same ones were further apart.

As they drove she got acquainted with the report. The woman had been stabbed seven times. The killer had never been found. The victim's location was- she checked the gps, a block away from this new victim's body. It happened a year ago exactly. "A yearly killer?"

"Let's hope that's all it is." Jared's hands clenched the wheel as they drove. He was usually very laid back and joking all the time. It was rare that Serena saw him tense up like this. "I was training for homicide when the last victim appeared. My trainers never caught the guy and never had any leads. I don't want to go through the same thing twice. This case haunted me. I was never able to tell that poor girl's family anything. They still call, but the officers assigned to the case have retired. We took their places."

Serena looked over Jared's profile with understanding eyes. "Are you sure this case won't be too much for you?"

"We'll see who has a harder time with it. You can drive back if its me."

It wasn't a competition but Serena didn't point that out. She knew it would be hard on her, she wouldn't be human if she wasn't. "You're not supposed to take cases personally or get emotionally involved." She commented but they both knew that would be impossible to do completely.

"You get personally involved with every case we have if it involves a child in some way." Jared pointed out. "Though I have a hard time with those cases too. I thank god every day that I wasn't assigned to special victims."

"You and me both." Serena gave a shudder as sometimes their paths did overlap, like the child from yesterday but that was supposed to be routine. "Speaking of which, did the ADA finally show up? It's not like her to not be in the building unless she's in court."

"Apparently she got promoted to DA and had been taking a vacation with her husband to celebrate. We've got a new ADA but he's still learning the ropes. When he did show up he gave me the new number we can reach him."

"Did he seem competent otherwise?"

"Competent enough, he handled the case well, even brought a stuffed animal for the boy." Jared saw her eyes perk up and he gave her a rueful grin. "Sorry Cherie, _not_ your type. Or maybe I should say it the other way around." He gave a small shrug. "Actually both fit."

"Blonde?"

"Blonde." He echoed.

Serena sighed and continued up the walk towards the abandoned store the girl was in. "I can't believe how many blonds there are down here. Totally ridiculous."

"_You're_ ridiculous." Jared held the door with a hand above her head after she had already done the hard part in opening it. "Just give in to the light and stop with your foolish fantasies." When she turned her head to glare mockingly at him he winked back. "At least now you'll have your pick in eye color."

"And what color eye do you think I should pick?"

"Brown." Since she wasn't looking at him, it sounded as if he was saying it in all seriousness. Yet she didn't have time to question him on it because they had arrived at their scene and there wasn't any joking to be had.

"She wasn't killed here." Serena said and wished she could take back the words that just escaped before she could hold them back.

The ME lifted his head from examining the body. He was an older man and had been on the payroll for several years. He might benefit from some newer techniques and help but they didn't have the budget for either. "What makes you say that Detective Williams?"

"There's not enough blood?" She asked weakly and knowing she'd be made fun of for weeks because of that comment but she couldn't think of anything else fast enough. In fact there was a lot of blood here, perhaps too much blood from someone so slight. That thought actually pulled her away from her embarrassment and turned to the rest of the CSI crew. "Make sure you swab _all _of the blood samples and compare them to the body.

"Seven stabs again?" Jared pulled the ME's disbelieving eyes from Serena as she canvased the scene with the CSIs.

"Yes. I'll know more about our victim's plight when I get her back to autopsy. It might just be circumstantial or someone wants us to think its the same killer to get away with what they've done. Excuse me. What is Detective Williams doing?" He interrupted his quick debrief as Serena was all the way across the room.

Serena looked back at the two men near the body at the question, having heard all he said. "I'm asking about blood trajectory. Do you have an ID on the body at least? Who is she? What's her name?"

He seemed unwilling to answer as he looked reluctantly back down at the victim's hands. "They, along with the teeth are gone."

"So there's only one way to identify her?" Serena asked while pointing something out to the CSI agent she was talking to.

"Which is?" Jared asked as a 'learning' question, see if she knew the answer. Though he might just have been missing the point she was getting at.

"Face match of course." Then her lips twisted in disgust at the entire situation."Though it might be hard without the teeth." She came back to stand next to Jared. "Any surgeries? Any missing bones or anything else?"

"Not that I've seen. Like I said, I have to do a full autopsy."

"See if she's had anything replaced. Every part has a serial number on it and we might be able to track it back to a name that way too." She turned back towards the door. "Coming Detective Matheiu?"

"Right away." Jared gave the ME a nod of thanks then chased after his partner. She hadn't gone towards the car though, ducking around the side and started breathing heavily, getting the 'clean' air back into her lungs. He stooped next to her and put a hand on her back. "Slow it down. Pull it in then let it out slowly. That's it."

Her breathing became calmer. She took another deep breath. "Thanks."

"It's hard to see dead bodies. I would start to worry when you become desensitized." She gave him a look as she continued to get her breathing under control. "We all deal with it in our own ways."

"I'd like to find a better way of dealing with it." Serena admitted, pushing herself up straight. "I'm good, we can go. Am I driving?" She held out her hand but he held the keys aloft.

"No way. A deal's a deal. You don't see me reneging on that paperwork I had to do."

Serena breathed heavily through her nose. "Can we go to the scene of the last victim?"

Jared turned on his heel and started to lead the way towards the other crime scene, one that was a year old. He was tense as they walked and didn't say much. It was only about a block away and before they went in he glanced out of the corner of his eye at her. "You really think she was moved?"

"I do. I'm not sure why but the blood splatters seemed wrong to me."

"There was entirely too much blood on the walls and ground." Jared agreed. "We'll have to see if tech can figure out the blood spatters. Why did you want them to check all the blood?"

"She couldn't possibly have had that much blood with seven stab wounds to the abdomen. I wonder if they'll find something else mixed in." Serena looked at the new scene and frowned as she took in the beauty salon that replaced it. "They do know there was a gruesome murder victim found here, right?"

"After all the tape was cleared away and they gutted the place, it was really cheap renting. Cheaper than when it was foreclosed even."

Serena fought back the shiver as she pushed her way in. The front desk woman was on the phone but glanced at them with a smile. It didn't take long before she was done and they showed their badges. "Well officers I'd like to help but we haven't called you in for anything."

"We'd just like a look around the place. We won't bother anyone." Jared gave her his most charming smile and Serena already started to slip off and look around. Jared would be better at telling her where the body was found but she didn't think she needed the help.

She closed her eyes and opened herself up to it a fraction. She walked further into the salon around all the customers and workers and towards the back. Unraveling and rewinding the clock. The killer had come in the back door and left the body in the middle of the abandoned shop wanting someone to see it but thinking nobody would, or at the very least it would take awhile. It was true for the first victim but the area had gotten developed again in the last several months and people started replacing businesses that once laid forgotten.

She stopped suddenly at a door inside the mens' room and opened her eyes. Jared came up behind her when she was still standing there and looked to see what had her so absorbed. "Six?" But it wasn't a real question because he was frowning as something came to him too, but he was unable to place it right away.

"It's out of place and not in the same style as the others."

Sure enough the four toilet stalls had small numbers above the handles so the cleaners could reference back to them in a more concise way. Neither the number nor the location made any sense.

"Let's go." Jared put a hand against the center of her back and pushed her towards the door to the hallway. He took out his phone and snapped a few photographs, just in case.

Serena lead the way back to their car and once inside it again, Jared looked for the file she'd had earlier. He flipped through it and landed at the bathroom with broken stall doors. This hadn't been important at the time but the numbers were written the same.

"I just thought they'd been marked for demolition." He turned the file to Serena and on those doors were two numbers split apart, a one and a two. "Do you think this is the countdown?"

"Twelve and six?" Serena bit her lip. "What can we get from that? It's halved?"

"It was a year ago." Jared started the car as he thought but didn't put it into gear as his thoughts clicked into position. "A year is twelve. He's speeding up his killings. We only have six months now to find the killer."

"Why would he do that? Why would he shorten the length between kills? Why would he _tell_ us in such a way?"

"He wants us to find him. He wants us to catch him. It's a game to him." Jared put the car into reverse to back out of the diagonal stalls. "Did you find anything there? I know the scene's been changed but you're really good at spacial reconstructing."

"Nothing really." Serena hesitated, but he was her partner. "He wore a mask."

"We've got six months. He went back to his old crime scene to leave another message, he dropped the new body off a block away and he wears a mask." Jared turned around and was back to the salon. "Give me two minutes." He jogged inside and came out a minute later with something in hand. "It's security footage from the night in question. She didn't think it would help, the cameras aren't state of the art or even angled well." He handed it to Serena who carefully bagged it and kept it from direct sunlight as they drove. Any small thing would break a case wide open.

–

Kyle had become one of her best friends. Though they often worked odd shifts and barely saw each other on the case and off, when they did get together they always enjoyed it. Often times they were just sitting and having a beer on his rooftop. Jared sometimes joined them.

Tonight it was just Serena and Kyle and he handed her a 1554, popping the top off for her beforehand. His fingers brushed the back of her hand as he pulled away and a frown crossed his features. "Something bothering you?"

"Beyond the usual?" She asked leaning back into the plastic striped folding chair and taking a sip of that full-bodied drink.

"You know you can't get much past me." He raised his own to his lips in a mild salute.

She looked down at her hands and into the neck of the bottle, thinking. "I'm not sure how to go about this one."

"You found the man, didn't you?"

Serena's eyes flickered over to him, her case wasn't a secret apparently. "The problem is there's no proof and another victim is coming up in a few months."

"Sometimes working as we do is hard. There's nothing you can use to get a warrant?" At the shake of her head he knew that the guy probably wouldn't even get on the lookout list because he hadn't done anything to warrant it. Their boss would want to know why they assigned that guy a tail. "Don't do something stupid." Kyle hissed suddenly leaning forward.

"You can't read my emotions that far away." She grinned, trying to make light of the situation. "How do you know my thoughts went down stupid? What is stupid, anyway?"

"Stupid is you tailing him yourself. You fit the profile perfectly. He might not hesitate to kill you and move up his timetable. He wouldn't care that his careful planning and controlled situation has gone down hill. He'll just find some way to explain it away if he ever gets caught."

"I can't just let him kill another woman." Serena grumbled, her fingers turning white around the bottle. "I hate this job."

"Just another six months and you can transfer." He soothed. "Stick it out and you'll be in the home stretch."

"I'm only able to transfer if there's a position open for me." She took another swallow. "With my luck I'll be given special victims or something else I don't want to handle. At least with this job some things are straight forward."

"Another six months." He repeated firmly. "If it makes you feel better I'll tag team with Jared and we'll watch the guy. You're going to steer clear of it, got me?"

"I _am_ a cop too you know." She felt a little defensive but knew it wasn't strictly because she was a woman and sometimes there was no getting around that fact.

"Right, you're a cop with the exact generals that the perp is targeting." His voice was dry and she slid her eyes his way. "How long exactly before the next victim is supposed to show up?"

"Three months." It had taken that long to figure out who he was and where he came from. Just because Serena knew his face didn't mean that everything was already figured out. "We're pretty sure motive is self-explanatory though there are other details we need to look into beyond what we've already figured out. We've narrowed down the weapon he used, we just need it in hand along with the victims. Opportunity will fall into place. The cameras at the salon have given us very little to go by except a partial plate and that lead nowhere. The plate was a fake."

"You didn't get plates from your little helper?"

"It doesn't work that way." She sounded long suffering as if she'd explained it a million times. "It was a black van but do you know how many there are of those in the state alone? A lot. The plates didn't kill the girl."

"All right, all right. I'm sorry I asked so much from the help." Kyle held up his hands in surrender.

"You're not as charming as Jared." She teased. "He can get away with the mockery."

"With you though he doesn't seem to employ that tactic. He's always so serious when you get involved."

Serena waved him off. "He's just hyper aware and looking for any clues I might miss. He's my superior officer. His ass is on the line if I mess up."

"That's funny because you usually seem to be the one picking up his droppings." Kyle shook his head. "Don't underestimate this though, he worries about you."

She gave a shrug. "Perhaps as a little sister."

Kyle laughed. "Maybe he likes the challenge you present him and if he finds another woman to take his attention away from you that might become true."

"Don't think I'm going to fall for my partner anytime soon?"

"With some of the high risk situations you've had with him and it _not _happening, no, I think you've firmly placed him in the friends zone."

Serena's legs kicked up onto the cooler. "Good, that's where he belongs. I don't mix personal and professional life. Not to mention that he's a serial one-night-er."

Kyle gave a nod but his thoughts were already elsewhere. "Zack's not helping you out at all?"

That produced a loud laugh that sounded good from the girl who had gotten more serious in the time he'd known her. "I'm not exactly the person he responds to the best for favors. Now if you or Jared asked him, perhaps he'd be a little more receptive to the idea."

"Doesn't like females? I guess I never picked up on that. I always figured he'd treat both fairly and none of this gender-biased workplace thing would get in the way. Females have just as much right being cops as males do."

A smirk crossed Serena's lips but she didn't say anything, just went back to her drink. A few minutes later she introduced a different topic altogether. Something based on pop-culture that neither really had time for but still managed to hear about.

As the night drew to a close, Serena stood up and stretched. "A jog tomorrow morning?"

"You mean in a few hours or after a two decent sleeps and a work regiment in the middle?"

Serena reached for her toes and then crossed sideways reaching for the opposite before standing back up again, stretching. "In a few hours and in a day's time."

"I'll take you up for the day from now but I'm going to go plop onto my bed and sleep for hours."

"Missing out." She picked up her two bottles and dumped them into the recycling can he had up there. "See you in a day then." She jogged down the steps, taking two at a time and towards her waiting car. The line had shut down a few hours ago and they both knew it would last this late.

"Bye." He said to the empty air as he repeated her actions with his own several empty bottles and did as he said he would.

–

Kyle took a swig out of his coke.

"That stuff will kill you man." Jared commented as he looked out his window at the vehicle parked down the side-street. It was a month after Serena had come clean to him about her problems with the case and tonight they were getting closer. They just needed to catch the man opening the back door. They needed to catch him soon as Serena was getting restless as she had everything she needed to wrap the case up nicely except for the major proof. She even had the connection to the farm, albeit it was a stretch. She knew it was there, she just didn't have a warrant to make it legal and stick. Nobody wanted this to go sideways.

Together they bought one of the old Pizzeria's trucks for cheap and parked it in front of the restaurant and pretended that they were waiting for a delivery. It meant that every once in awhile a man had to come out with an order and they had to go around back and then leave the scene but usually that was to switch off shifts between their regular jobs and sleep. They were both lucky that they didn't have families wondering where they were all the time.

Kyle leaned back into his seat, resting his eyes and responding to Jared's comment. "You're an idiot."

"What makes you say that?" His voice sounded distracted and Kyle lifted one lid lazily.

"You believe all that medical mumble-jumble."

"Mumble-jumble?" Jared asked with disbelief. "You were once on the fast track to becoming a doctor. You should be well-versed in all of that jargon yourself."

The older of the two sighed, it was true but he learned quickly that it wasn't for him, but not before he'd spent years studying medicine. It was only discovered when he had to actually interact with the patients. "None of it is based in scientific fact. It's all conjecture. A real doctor wouldn't tell you what the news tells people is often regurgitated so it looks nothing like the original form as they can't understand the findings or it is in direct opposition to what they said a week before."

"I still stand by the fact that coke will kill you long before other caffeinated substances."

"I can't believe it took me so long to realize that you're one of those health-nuts. Emphasis on the nuts." Kyle closed his eyes again. "All these fads your following won't make you live any longer."

"Just healthier and feel better." Jared returned.

Kyle snorted. "Because coffee is so good for you."

Jared ignored Kyle when he saw a man go around the back of the van and paused there. "Think he looks like Serena's drawing?"

He opened his eyes and peered out the window. "It's hard to tell." It was dark and the man was wearing a hat and a high-collared jacket. "What's he waiting for?"

"You think he's spotted us?" They had purposefully parked down the road a little so they could still see the van but not be as obvious as sitting directly in the intersection. Yet the real issue was that they had to be visible slightly if they were going to be able to get a glimpse at what was inside the van.

"No, we're just doing what we've been doing for the last month. Nothing out of the ordinary." Except that the truck hadn't sat there before a month ago and if this guy lived in the area as long as it seemed, he would know that. He had the owners tell the staff that their was a new system they were trying out for a few months but only time would tell if the guy bought that.

Thing was, they were out of jurisdiction. Gretna might be a suburb but they had little authority here. So if they did catch the guy in the act they had to move fast.

Something felt off to Kyle and he couldn't place his finger on it. The girls had both been identified and they were both from out of state. "Why cross the river to dump the bodies?" Where did he find the girls? His job had very little to do with tourists, if at all.

The man at the van had decided not to open the back after all and had started walking in their opposite direction. He didn't even look back towards them.

"Why do anything?" Jared asked and Kyle could feel the unease radiating off of the other man. Sometimes it was a wonder how the easy-going man got promoted to D2, much less why he got placed in homicide. It didn't seem a good fit, at all. He should have been on beach patrol or a lifeguard instead. "It's smart though, dumping the bodies somewhere away from where you sleep. Yet still its close enough to get in and out without being caught. With the cover of night, things get missed." Jared patted the door. "Might as well go make a 'delivery'."

Kyle put the truck into drive and swung around the corner and waited another minute before pulling back onto the road and following the man's direction. "We're never going to catch him opening that door, he knows its too big of a risk to be caught. We need to follow him to his picking field where he doesn't feel as exposed."

"He dumps the bodies in a location with cameras. I don't think he's too worried." Jared rubbed the back of his neck. "Unless Serena's wrong."

"Has she been?" Kyle tried to go as slow as he could without appearing like they were tailing the guy but soon they had to pass him and pull into a side road. Jared got out with a cardboard box and ran up the steps and into a building while Kyle kept watch of the alleyway for the man. Jared didn't have an answer for him because so far she hadn't been.

Jared jogged back down to the truck and slid in. "Anything?"

"No, he must have gone down a different street." Kyle drove the truck back to their spot but when they drove by the street the black van usually sat at, it was gone. "She's not going to like this." It was the first time the van had been moved other than street cleaning in the last month.

"How did he get back to the van so quickly?" Jared questioned, sure that it would take too long to walk back by the time they drove that same distance.

Kyle groaned and dropped his head onto the steering wheel. "We've been played."

"He knows that we're onto him."

He slid his phone out of his pocket to call Serena when Jared's hand on his wrist stopped him. Anger slid up his arm and he knew it wasn't his own feeling because he was already feeling that with a host of other emotions towards the newest situation. "What is it?" He tried to shake Jared off. He hated feeling others' feelings but sometimes it was necessary and sometimes it was unavoidable. In both his chosen fields it was a help but it was also a hindrance.

"You're not pulling her out of bed with this news. We lost him, we'll find him."

"Serena will do it a lot faster than we will." Kyle argued. "She can come here and-"

Jared shook his head. "You want to put her in the scope?" It was a repeat of what Kyle had said a month ago but that was against Serena staking a place out. This was different, this meant her skills could be harnessed rather than a direct involvement.

"A BOLO?" Kyle finally dropped his hand, Jared was right. Sometimes Jared proved he was right for the job after-all. Serena was off duty and so were they but a call to dispatch wouldn't hurt anyone.

"I'll do it. In the meantime, I think it's time we look into some of his other haunts."

"The farm?" Kyle questioned putting the truck into gear, they had to swing a few blocks over to park in their stall. Rent here was fairly inexpensive and it would look like they lived in an apartment in the area without having to actually chip away at their expenses. The Sedan was a few streets further in a slightly nicer block and they'd have to walk to it from the pizza truck's owner's lot. It was just in case the man happened to see the truck parked there while they were at their real jobs and didn't associate the sedan with it. Not that it was needed anymore, the guy had figured them out.

"It's where he's bound to go eventually." Jared agreed after putting in the BOLO. They at least had plates now and if a local officer pulled him over they might look into the back if it was suspicious. That at least fit the chain of evidence nicely. As they drove the half hour drive, Jared mulled over his thoughts. Kyle only knew what he was thinking when he spoke again. "He might not have made us. We might have just been following someone who was curious about the van and then gave it a pass."

"You mean like a hijacker who decided against it?"

"Exactly." Though both knew that was a long shot.

Someone radioed in a short while later. "We found your van."

"That was quick." Kyle pulled over to the side of the road so they didn't have to backtrack further. "Where do we need to go?"

"Found him on the old bridge not too far from where you started." The voice responded. "Except the man doesn't fit the description and when officers had him step out of the vehicle there were no keys."

Jared cracked up. "You mean there was a hijacker after all, just after we left instead of before?"

Kyle's eyes slid to him to shut him up. "Take the van into the police impound lot. We'll want to go through it for evidence before calling round to the owner. He hasn't called has he?"

"Not yet." The man had been going for a walk, he might still be on it and hadn't had a chance to find his ride missing yet. "Want us to call him?"

"No, that's all right, we're going to swing around and pick him up. He'll be pleased to know we found his van." Jared's lips twitched as he spoke and hung up with the caller. "This is great."

Kyle couldn't believe it either. The hijacker gave them a perfect excuse to go through the van with the owner to make sure nothing of value had been stolen. The man wouldn't be able to refuse coming with them as they had his van and it would be suspicious if he didn't come. In the meantime he couldn't mess with the evidence because he'd be sitting in an office full of cops.

"Serena's going to be pi-is-sed." Jared sang, pleased he'd finally broke a case while she was out.

"You seem to be in a lot better spirits." Kyle commented as he drove back to the man's residence, he didn't work too far away so usually walked there. In fact it was the lightest he'd ever seen the man and he was usually pretty annoying and chipper.

Jared lifted both eyebrows in mild surprise. "Of course I am. This is one case I've been working on for nearly a year and a half. I'm just glad to see it at the cusp of being solved and done with. At least on my end." He'd have to review it all again at trial just in case he got called to the stand but it would be out of his hands in the meantime.

That was something Kyle could understand. His phone peeled off before he parked and he finished parking before answering the phone. It was Serena. "It's all right, we're just going in now to pick him up."

"Really?" Serena's voice was crisp on her end of the line. "Then why is it I see him at this very moment getting out of an airport taxi in Holy Cross?"

Kyle swore. "Just stay where ever you are and don't go near him. We'll be right there." He hung up and got out of the car.

Jared was waiting for him outside of the car, already resigned to know what Serena had called about. They could question her about why she was down there later. "What did she want?"

"We need to go, now."

"No." Jared nodded towards the apartment complex behind him, he already knew the room number. "We're going to pick him up first." There was no way he was going to slip through their fingers again.

"She spotted him in Holy Cross."

"We know he's been here, there's no way he could get from here to there in that amount of time." Jared started up the steps without Kyle and he hit the top of the car before joining the prettier of the two men.

"You're being reckless. We need to back up Serena."

"I'm being thorough." Jared denied.

Kyle grumbled. "We can't even know for sure that he's been here the whole time. He might have snuck out earlier or wasn't here at all. We weren't here the entire morning."

"_You_ weren't here the entire morning," Jared disagreed. "I was. We'll just check in with him, put him in the car and on the way make a detour over to Holy Cross. He'll understand. In the meantime the vehicle will be processed and so will the hijacker. It'll be fine."

A headache was forming at the base of his skill. He didn't have to touch Jared to know tension was radiating off of him in waves. Jared wanted to gun the car towards Serena, he was too good of a partner to leave her hanging like this but he also wanted to cover all the bases on their end. "At least send another member of the squad to her."

Jared had his phone out with that suggestion and was ringing up another member of their team. Most cases were between the two partners but in some situations other members on homicide lent a hand. In this case it had extended to the others to help follow down leads. "Boone, I need you in the Cross. Call Serena when you get close and she'll give you directions." Jared listened and gave a faint nod. "I'm too far away to get there first. Good." He hung up the phone and slid it back into his pocket.

They were in the stairwell and had just found the landing the man lived on. It didn't take too much longer before they were at the door and the man who matched the drawing Serena had created opened the door. "Mr. Leblanc? NOPD." Kyle flashed his ID quickly.

"Yes? What's this all about?" The man was in pajamas. How long had he been home and getting ready for bed? Maybe neither of the men they saw on the street tonight was him. It was possible. His height was average as was his weight. Nothing about him was really standout.

"Earlier this evening your van was stolen. We'd like for you to come down to the precinct and identify it."

"Oh. Yes. Yes of course. This is just a shock to me. I saw it only an hour ago. Stolen you say? That is so strange because I needed to take it in for a tuneup later this month." He rubbed a hand on his forehead. "I'll just take a moment to get dressed." He started to close the door but Jared shot a hand out to keep it open.

"Actually, if you wouldn't mind coming right now, we're in a bit of a hurry." There was no way this man was getting the jump on them and fleeing the scene.

"A jacket's fine. You'd be surprised at the clothing some people wear at a police station." Kyle tried to soothe over Jared's agitation. He wasn't even trying to use his charm and usual persuasion. He frowned at him but Jared wasn't letting his eyes off of Leblanc.

"Right, right." The man was nervous and his actions were jagged as he pulled on a jacket and stuffed his wallet into his pocket. At least he had the presence of mind to do that, so he'd have identification on him to get the van back.

Kyle's eyes narrowed as they lead him down the stairs to the car sitting at the curb. There was a screen between the rows so they didn't handcuff him, not wanting him to get suspicious. Jared opened the door, unsure if he would behave himself if he was in reach of touching the man. He got in and it wasn't until they were across the river and heading towards 9th that it occurred to him what was wrong.

He had his phone up to his ear before he realized he was calling her. The man had never gone around to the back in the entire time they'd been watching him. "Where exactly are you?" He was relieved to hear her voice.

He put the car into a higher gear after she told him and they were speeding through the streets. When the streets narrowed he had to slow but he still squealed into a parking spot when they reached the area Serena had said she and Boone were at.

"Stay in the car." He ordered Serena when she attempted to get out, Jared was right behind him as they forced their way into the house Serena was canvasing. She didn't listen and she was steps behind them, having to wait while Jared had trapped her with his open door. Boone stayed behind with the man in Kyle's sedan.

Jared held a hand out and pushed Serena behind him, her weapon was drawn but she was not dressed for this. She was in shorts and a tank top that couldn't conceal even the lightest vest. She didn't fuss about the position, she probably knew better than to go in first.

They heard shots fired behind them and Serena was the first out the door, her gun discharging before she even cleared the house. A shout and a man was down on the ground bleeding out through a new hole in his thigh. Jared grabbed Serena by the waist and shoved her behind him again as Kyle ran to the man, putting a knee in his back and cuffing him.

When he dragged the man onto his feet, he stilled as he was looking at the perfect double to the man in his car.

Serena went to check on Boone who was ducking under the console while Jared bagged the gun the other man was firing. Thankfully Serena had bulletproof windows installed into her car and Boone was sitting with her while they waited rather than in his own. Once he was taken care of she opened the front passenger seat of Kyle's car.

Kyle had almost forgotten about the pajama wearing man with his double held in his hand. They weren't dressed alike at all. He could hear her as he dragged the man with him to Boone's back seat. There was no way he was going to put him behind Serena. She could drive herself to the station.

"Are you all right?" She asked and could visibly see her freeze as she took in the similarities as well. "Woah."

"Let me out of here." The man was grasping for a way out and trying to push the door open but there weren't any handles inside and were child-locked.

"Pipe down. You're under arrest." Jared snapped sliding into the driver's seat.

They were a couple inches different in height but their differences were in the proportions and Kyle called Jared out before the seat or mirrors could be screwed up. "You're _not _driving."

Boone was already behind the wheel of his car and its motor was already purring, ready to leave. They couldn't really leave just yet, it needed to be called in. "Go. I'll take care of things here." Serena pushed slightly against Kyle's back and he gave a nod, getting into the seat now vacated by Jared. Jared squeezed Serena's upper arm before climbing into the passenger seat. Then the three men drove off with the identical suspects.

Her phone was already in hand and she was sliding into her seat as they lost sight of her. Kyle wasn't too worried, she knew to lock the door once inside. The radio spoke as they drove back, and he relaxed further into his seat. He shouldn't have been so worried about leaving a fellow officer behind, even a female one. "Available CSI please report to 5486 Juniper Lane, Holy Cross." She'd be joined soon by a horde of officers.

–

She thought it was sweet that her old partner and her new partner were so worried about her. A little irritating at times, but sweet. They were good friends and good cops and it turned out their worry was unnecessary as she met them at the station about an hour after they got there. She'd probably worry over them if they were in any danger, too.

Kyle was sitting in her chair when she walked in and when he saw her he got out of it quickly to move to one of the hardbacks next to her and Jared's desks. She sank into her plush chair with a smile. "I'd say you look good behind a desk, but since you're already D1, you already have it down to an art." Then she turned her attention to Jared. "What'd I miss on this end?"

"He confessed." Jared announced. "Piles of evidence against him and the van to top it off gave just the right push to have him boasting about his kills."

She held his eyes, waiting. "Which one?"

He seemed uneasy. "You were right about your lead. I'm sorry it took us so long to get there. He could have shot at you before hand and you would have had no backup." Not to mention everything else.

She flipped her hair over her shoulder unconcerned. "He did shoot at my car, you were there, and it held up. Besides, the man you brought was identical."

Kyle nodded. "They are twin brothers. They were adopted when they were young and met up again about two years ago and the one that killed those women had been adopted by a drug-addled, abusive blonde.

"We didn't find any drugs in their system." Serena turned her head sharply at the news. How had she missed this?

"The same way you know he was trying to obscure their identities. He didn't want them to be known just like he wasn't. I think in a way he was trying to clean their systems."

"By mixing their blood with pig's blood?" That had rolled her stomach the moment she learned what had been in that room with the woman. "Was it only the two victims?" This was what she needed to know the most.

"Yes." Jared's mouth was hard. "He met them on the plane ride and knew what the security guards had missed, apparently he was a drug and substance abuse counselor in his home state of Maryland. He figured if he did the killings here, where he had no records then he'd get away with it. He was also trying to taunt us. The twelve wasn't just a month, it was how many he was going to kill next. One the first year, two the second, six the third."

Serena frowned. "That sounds like a large jump."

A shrug was her response from Jared.

"His brother knew there was something off about the car and he'd given his brother directions to the farm but he never looked in back. He said that when they first met that his brother seemed well adjusted, and was a better communicator than he was. He just got warned off from looking while it was in his care. Which explains why it never got moved in the last month that we watched. He wasn't the one with the keys. Big surprise when the hijacker got caught and he saw what was in back. You're right, the bodies got moved after the fact."

"The seven stab wounds are rage or the seven sins. He wouldn't say." Jared frowned. "Why the district?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Serena asked closing her eyes as she sat back in her chair. "For a man who had no roots or home to really call his own, it makes sense that he would go back to the same areas. They were comfortable. However when his first dumping ground because a store he had to find someplace where he could be uninterrupted and moved to the next block over."

"The house in HC?" Kyle asked, resting his hand over Serena's, trying to lessen the pain coursing through her. That might work temporarily but the memory wouldn't go anywhere.

"After you left I went in with CSI. It's where he hooked up the transfusions. There were bats of that stuff." She bit her bottom lip as it assaulted her again. "The women were still alive and conscious when he changed their blood. That's what killed them." She shook and gripped Kyle's hand hard and then breathed through it and opened her eyes. "I think his brother has more to do with the killings than he has said."

"They'll both be going away for a long time." Jared vowed and looked over her shoulder. "Won't he, Zack?"

ADA Zack Abram gave his firm agreement, his green eyes cold. It wasn't the first time Serena saw him and shivered, and he was just a laywer. "For a very long time. The three of you have brought me three new cases. Hopefully I can get at least one of them to sign an agreement before court."

"Do you have everything neatly organized like you usually do, Detective Mathieu?"

"That's partly Serena's specialty." Jared slid the box over to him. "All that's missing is our final reports from tonight."

"All right but for the near future it is best if you take point as lead detective, as you have more experience with cases and files. This way it won't seem as if a rookie is doing your job."

"Wait a second, you can't put her down like that, she solves a lot of cases." Kyle jumped to her defense and Zack turned his attention onto Kyle.

Something flared in his eyes as he looked down at the man. "Seeing as how you're not even a homicide detective, perhaps you better walk away from this case all together, Detective Ramsey." He took the hand raising a finger at him and moved it away and something akin to surprise appeared in Kyle's eyes. "Regardless it will look better for the case if it appears that Jared had lead on it. I don't care if she is a better detective, he has more time in the position."

"All right." Something had happened there between the two of them that suppressed Kyle's mood. "Just back off the female bashing."

"I think females are beautiful creatures in their own right and excel in certain facilities. Serena is a rare one in the police force and they are under utilized in other male dominated arenas."

"Touching." Serena cut in before this could get out of hand. Or at least even further out of hand. "Back to the case gentlemen."

"Like I was saying, please wrap up last thoughts." Zack lifted a file and headed towards the cells, probably to talk to the hijacker. At least that one was easy.

Kyle stared at the man's back flabbergasted, probably never seeing Zack that way before. Serena had no idea how often those two interacted but she had to interact with the other man a lot. Her eyes flickered over to Jared's amused pair and the two of them busted out laughing.


	3. Episode 2

Episode 2

–

She was close, so close to finishing with this wretched job, one month to go and she'd almost never have to see a dead body again. She was already looking into opening positions and had made friends with the narcotics, robbery task force and missing persons squad. There were others she wasn't opposed to and she marked those as possibilities at well. She just hadn't made friends with the captains of those forces. She did know though that she'd still come across death in those divisions but it was more bearable than _every_ case. She ignored many of the others, not wanting to even contemplate those cases.

"Looking up ways out of this?" Jared asked looking over her shoulder at the internal listings.

"You should be too. There's a hostage negotiator position opening up." She spun on him and nearly took him out. "That's something you'd thrive at."

"I'm fine with what I've got right now." He nudged her shoulder. "My charm might not work when it's not face to face."

"Your charm works just fine over the phone too." She gave him a bemused look. "Wish I had that skill."

"You'd be impossible to live with if you had my charm but you've got enough of your own. It's just different."

A begrudging smile crossed her lips and she nodded towards his desk. "Got a new case for us?"

Jared was about to hand over the case file when their captain stopped at their desk. "A year has gone by quickly, hasn't it, detectives?" Serena looked at her boss slowly with a questioning look in her eyes as she nodded. "You have done remarkable, the pair of you." She tacked on the latter for Jared's benefit but she was looking at Serena. Jared had been here now for almost eighteen months, not to mention the time he'd spent training. "Usually you're a D2 for at least two years before you move onto D3. Yet it doesn't seem as if the usual career trajectory applies to you."

"What are you talking about?" She hadn't the faintest, she still had another year before moving up to D3 status. She had gone through most of the steps with the same length of time that was laid out in the requirements.

The woman smiled seeing that she didn't know _everything._ "I'm willing to shave a year off of your D2 status and promote you next month. I've already conferred with some of the higher ups and they've agreed to let me promote you before the required years have passed."

"That's usually done posthumously." Jared commented wryly rubbing his nails of his left hand against his shirt. He was supposed to be promoted before she was, by _several _months and it was inappropriate that they were even having this conversation, much less in front of her fellow employee and partner. This would not inspire trust between them if there was any rocky ground there already. "Is there something we don't know about but should?"

The captain shook her head, for once ignoring Jared and his charming draw. "I cannot allow one of my best detectives to leave the department. Do you realize the kind of funding we've brought in because of our numbers this last year? Do you know how many cases would have shifted to cold case and wasted man hours would have happened?"

Serena frowned, not liking the sound of this. "What exactly are you saying?"

"I'm going to shave off a year of your D2, salary raises and everything if you'll stay in homicide. If not you might have to wait several years for a promotion, depending on how well your new captain likes you." The captain's black brow rose as she looked at Serena. "Did you think Jared was the only one aware that you were itching to get out of our division?"

"Look, Captain-" She wasn't sure what she wanted to say to that. "I appreciate everyone welcoming me into homicide and all but I need to experience more of the divisions in our district."

The black brow rose even higher. "Do you have plans on becoming the first female commissioner in New Orleans? You have a very long way to go."

"I'm not sure I could say my plans are that lofty and I know by the time it would take to get up to that position that the ranking will be well buried under a mountain of women to have fulfilled that role. I have no major burning desire to be seated there at this time. I only wish to learn more about the different positions we have here in the Q."

"Promotions don't happen as quickly in the less stressful job divisions." She warned Serena.

Serena gave a small shrug. "If a position seems to fit me perfectly, I might stay until I retire."

"This position fits you perfectly." The captain argued but Jared was already shaking his head. "You disagree or you are just jealous by the promotional offer?"

"I think Detective Williams excels in this position but she doesn't thrive. She will be put to good use elsewhere and she might be mentally happier. Emotionally she will never find better coworkers."

"That is very true Detective Mathieu, I don't believe better coworkers exist anywhere." Homicide detectives were too intense for the most part, Jared was a rare find, Cold case was just filled with odd people, some were fine and almost perfectly normal as normal could be but a few were very strange, the ones that had been there for the longest usually fell under that category. As for the other departments, well it was all hit and miss. In general there were a few that were well known for having a very cohesive and personable grouping but those were very special divisions. Most were like the one she'd seen so far.

The captain grumbled and gave a curt nod. "Fine, so be it. Just- don't switch over to something as thorny as IA."

Serena gave a reassuring smile. "Not even on my list of possibles. I'm not interested in policing our wonderful peers."

"Good. I'll see what I can do to make you seem appealing to a new division." Serena would have told her not to bother but she decided the woman was on the level, it was better to transfer a detective if they deserved it rather than keep an unhappy one, especially in such a high risk position.

Serena thanked her captain and when the woman walked away she turned to the opened case file. "Don't even worry about it." Serena didn't need to look up to know that Jared was staring at her.

"Would it hurt terribly to stay another year?" Then he shrugged. "Probably. Besides I'd be promoted in six months anyway and we'd both be training other detectives. Better to break up the dream team next month."

"You just don't want a younger person catching up to you." Serena flipped to the next page. "It looks to be in order."

Jared took the papers and looked through it as well. "Yep." He signed off. "Next case?"

"I'd hold off on that, if I were you." One of the other members of their squad spoke, still on her phone and waved at the two of them. "I'm smack dab in the middle of a different one but there's a fresh body that's been found at Faulkner House."

"What a great way to start a Tuesday morning." Jared joked as he and Serena took up their guns and other supplies.

Serena clipped her badge onto her hip, tired of wearing it around her neck right now. "At least we can walk there."

Jared rubbed a hand across his face at the idea. "Ok." He gave a rueful smile. "It's not like we're arresting anyone."

They were in the elevator and for once the thing was empty. Serena poked him in the stomach. "You're getting a little flabby, perhaps you need to work out some more."

"I'm fine. You're the one that eats all that greasy processed food." Jared straightened and shifted away from her, running a hand down his stomach. "I just don't like walking around the city when its this hot."

"Afraid your skin will fry?"

"Afraid yours will." He flicked a finger along her cheek. "At least I have the brown eyes, your blues are a huge indicator of northern descent." At her death glare he grinned. "Sorry but its true, I embodied in my French heritage."

His hair was a dirty blond with hints of brown in it. Her lips twisted, there was some truth to it with his darker complexion. "The only French you know is your name."

"At least I acknowledge as much."

They were only going a few blocks and she glanced up at him from the corner of her eye as they walked. "Are you mad at me?"

"No."

"I didn't take that inappropriate promotion." Serena stated without being asked.

Jared shrugged. "I know that."

"Then what's with the attitude?"

Caught, Jared knew he had to respond if he was going to get any rest from her. "I just hate all this talk of you leaving. We're good partners. I'd have liked that to last. Some teams last decades together."

Serena pursed her lips. That was true, he was her first _actual _partner, the rest of her divisions so far rotated almost every day. "If I could take you with me, I would. But I'm sure our paths will cross often enough in the future. Look how much we work with Kyle."

He grumbled. "I suppose it depends which department you end up in." Jared slanted her a charming smile. "I mean you could end up as a fraud investigator."

"That could always lead to homicide, you know." She butted him with her shoulder. "Cheer up, we'll be tripping over each other all the time. It's a fairly small city."

Jared laughed as he lifted the crime-tape for her to duck under. He was watching her though as they got closer. "Anything?"

A frown slipped over her lips as she shook her head. "Not yet." Then she paused outside the door leading into the building. "Well then." She tilted her head and opened the door. "Let's see what the ME has to say."

"Ah, if it isn't my favorite duo." The ME turned towards them from checking body temp. "Been dead about a day. Any brilliant insight for me, detectives?"

"Do you have a cause of death?" Jared asked, ignoring the bite in the ME's voice, he was just jealous that they caught things he didn't.

"That book." He waved his hand towards the hard leather-bound ledger that was frankly huge in all of the dimensions.

Jared squatted next to it and looked at the blood patterns and first checking that it had been photographed before using his glove to lift a corner to see inside. "It's got the names of every book ever bought in this store and how much it went for and when. There's a serial number attached to each." His eyes scanned the pages. "It's also got the names of who bought the books." He flipped through several more pages, looking for the most recent purchases. "Hopefully this doesn't turn into a fishing extravaganza."

Serena gave a small sound of agreement as she looked around the room. "It will take us a better part of a year to go through all those names, if his is even in there."

"I haven't told you that yet." The ME inserted., frustration entering his voice now. "From now on I'm going to have the dispatcher give me the names of the detectives and I will decide if my services are even necessary."

Serena flushed and gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry, I just know that I wouldn't have been able to lift that."

"And you're the mark for all females to live up to in terms of strength, are you?" The ME goaded as he went back to his job and determining what he could fill them in on before he got it back to the morgue.

"Is there something missing?" She ran her finger before all the books and changed positions as she looked at the body and lined herself up to the angle. "Yes. Here." She pointed to a space. "There's a book missing."

"It's a book store. Books get bought and things don't get replaced right away. Kind of like libraries, a space for them to be refilled rather than pushed about."

That was a new voice and Serena turned to who contradicted her. It was a woman in uniform. "Excuse me?" Serena asked, wondering who this officer was.

"Just saying that even though there's a blank spot, it doesn't have to mean anything. Rather than chase down faulty leads." She added the last while looking away, realizing the detectives were both looking at her like she was spouting fire.

"Isn't that your job?" Jared asked, taking a picture of the spot Serena had pointed out. "Isn't ours to give you those leads to follow up on? Maybe we'll just give you the task of combing through that _entire_ book for a lead, even the ones from decades ago. You never know if it might mean something."

Serena glanced back at Jared, she usually saw him take the charm route with the women that disagreed but something had his back up and he was tightly controlled as he spoke. She turned her attention back to the redhead and tried a gentler approach. "You have to be aware of the false leads in case one of them turns out to be something that matters. Its worse when there's nothing to do than having too many different paths to follow down."

She nodded and took a step back. "I apologize."

"It's a learning curb, rookie." Her superior officer inserted then looked to the detectives. "Anything we can do?"

"Not just yet, thanks." Serena noted how the body laid behind a row of books.

"The two of them must have been having a discussion when this went down." Jared caught up to her thoughts. "The ledger is not far from the body and the missing book is feet away. Nobody would have seen it because we're on the second floor and security is tight. They had to be speaking with one another and things quickly got out of control."

Serena agreed and said as much. "The question now is whether or not the book stolen was purchased or noted upon in any other way by the store owner. It's probably good to take similar photos of other books to try and figure out the system and which one is missing."

"Faulkner's biography by London Christopher." A man stepped over the threshold and held up his hands when the officers instantly moved to block him. "I'm actually the owner of this store. That man on the ground was my father."

"Why would anyone want to steal that book?" Jared asked before any of the other hundred questions could be asked.

"It was highly debated and there are only a handful of copies left in the world. Those who sought to destroy its credibly ended up making it worth more and giving it more interest." The man shrugged. "As for who would want to _steal _it, I haven't the slightest. While it is becoming more and more rare to find a copy of it, it doesn't cost a whole lot and it was not for sale. That there is the read-in-store section. There will be any number of prints."

"Please stay where you are, we will come to you." Jared and Serena skirted around the father to speak with the son. "Is being in here too hard for you?" Jared was suddenly back to his charming self. "We can go outside and talk."

The man shook his head. "I'm afraid that I've been waiting for this. He was old and he was having issues recently with his health. To be honest I always thought an illness would kill him, or his body would just quit on him. He isn't my first dead relative."

"But he was your father." Serena was surprised by his blasé attitude.

"We never really got along, ever since my grandfather left the store to me in his will instead of his own son. I've tried to let him in on as much as he could but he's resented me through the years."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Jared directed him towards a seat that had already been tagged as checked and documented. "I hope that you two can find forgiveness in death where you couldn't find it in life. Try to not let it hang around your neck and move on."

Serena sighed, this was pointless. "Could I get you some water or something?"

"No." His eyes scanned Serena quickly in her slacks and button down, then went over her again. "I just came in to help. He told me that he was having trouble with a prospective buyer of Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. Said the man wanted the biography as well to compare. Dad said I wasn't selling and that was the last I heard of it. Until today."

"Do you have any idea who this man was?"

"No, just a local." He grimaced. "Sorry I couldn't be more help."

"That was plenty of help, thank you." Serena paused and turned back to him. "Wait, what was the code for that book, the one you just said?"

He gave it to her and twenty minutes later the ledger and all the other evidence was heading back towards the precinct. Jared stretched as they headed back. "Since we're out, want to get some lemonade?"

"Sounds perfect." They entered the next cafe on the way back and both ordered different flavors. In another hour they'd be able to get their hands on the book and look through it without worrying about destroying any helpful evidence. "Food?"

They shared a look and then a food choice. Creole.

This outing just became the start of their lunch break and they enjoyed the time off in between.

–

"This is pointless." Jared pushed away from the book of names. They were going backwards from most recent to earlier buys and they'd tracked down everyone. "Can't you speed this along at all? He could be leaving the city as we speak!"

Her nose wrinkled at him as she glanced around and kept her voice low when nobody looked towards her. She knew he was frustrated but she couldn't rush things. "Evidence, chain of events, etc, to start with." She flipped pages and felt her own frustration grow. "And in this case knowing what he looks like won't help anything. We need a name to help track him down. At least we know he's local and probably won't flee."

"You'd said something before we went in. What was it?" Jared pushed and a thoughtful expression crossed his face as he tried to recall. "Well...?"

"Well then." Serena pushed the book towards him, it was his turn to try and decipher the numbers. "I was just surprised at how quick and painless all of it was, it wasn't thought out. It was a bit of a relief not having to deal with a planned homicide."

Jared grumbled but he typed in the numbers he saw and left Serena to her reflections. She would be more than happy to move divisions, she could finally use her help for good, catching crimes before someone got seriously hurt. Or not using it at all. Her next partner wouldn't be on her case about it all the time or demanding she use it. She only knew so much and how much depended on what was there for her to see with her own eyes.

They'd been going at this since they got back from lunch. It was dark out now and Serena stretched back in her seat hearing her bones click, whether into place or out she wasn't sure. One of the lieutenants glanced over at her. "It's late and the body isn't going to go anywhere. Go home and sleep. You might get a better perspective in the morning."

"Sure, we'll just finish the page." Jared spun the book around towards her and pointed at where he left off. "Get anything?"

Serena slanted him an annoyed look, she might be able to from just the numbers but she'd be in a head crunch the likes that would take days to get out of and he'd be dealing with a very cranky person. Not for the first time she wished someone savvy with numbers was on her team. In the meantime the lieutenant was right. "Everyone is going to be turning off their ringers. We won't get a response tonight and have to back track in the morning. Let's just go."

He smiled at her and the flash of white should have made her melt a little as it created dimples. She was wise to his ways. "Testy, are we?" His voice was a teasing lilt.

"Will get more so soon if I don't get some serious shut eye." At least she wasn't hungry, the department had ordered some food in.

"All right, all right, all right. I'll walk you down to your car." She didn't feel like reminding him that she didn't need a walk down. She was a police officer, and they would be right outside a police station,what harm could come to her here?

Down in the parking lot, Serena turned towards Jared, cutting him off from asking her _again_ about the guy. She'd help if she could but so far all she had to go off from was a face with no matches in the database. She couldn't use a company sketch artist for every case. "So what was the deal with you and that officer."

Jared put a hand behind his head and scratched, totally caught off guard. "Well she and I- we kind of had er-"

"Seriously?" Serena was exasperated and his sheepish look wasn't getting anywhere with her. "I thought you swore off force dating."

"Well there's always some exceptions." An eyebrow lifted as if to say 'you're still on that?' He sighed and rubbed his jaw ruefully. "No, I get it, we're friends. I've tried everything in my arsenal and nothing! In truth you just intrigue me."

"And you irritate me. Why do you even bother when you know that I like you better when your real but appreciate your skills on others?"

"Because our babies would be spectacular." He laughed at her flummoxed face. "Only half kidding. As for the officer, well she's kind of second guessing you because I slept with her and she's jealous. Sorry! At the time, to be fair, she wasn't part of our force. She was another precinct's issue."

Serena shook her head in disgust. Couldn't even keep it in his pants. "And was she set to transfer here before that?"

"No. What kind of person do you take me for?" When her eyebrows lifted he held up his hands in defense. "No, better not let you answer that one."

She sighed wearily and opened her driver's side door and slid into the seat. "Good night Jared. I'll see you in the morning."

"Yeah. Drive safe." He shut the door for her and watched her drive away. His cellphone peeled before her taillights disappeared. "Mathieu here." He ran a hand over his face and groaned. "Shit. Really? All right, I'll be there in five." He got into his car and headed in the other direction.

–

Jared pulled into the parking lot of his apartment. He'd moved out of the Q as soon as he got his first paying job. Now he lived in Central. Unfortunately he lived right next to an auto repair shop. And today was one of those days that it really just made it an inconvenience. People were parked in the apartment's parking lot because they had spilled not only motor oil again but also one of the cars was leaking gasoline and the owner hadn't disclosed that issue.

As resident cop, he was picked by his co-residents to deal with the issues that cropped up and needed a stern voice to sort it out. Often the repair shop tried to push issues but this time of night would be met with disgruntlement by the residents trying to find spots. He had to talk to the owners of the repair shop about where they could move the cars to instead while they got someone in to clean up the mess.

At least there was a church another block away. They didn't like to park there because it wasn't as convenient as across the street but they'd have to make due. He'd help move them if he had to.

It took a little over an hour to get it all organized and moving. They had put tape up but the cleaners wouldn't come until morning. "Glad I don't have my car in right now." Jared muttered to himself, finally done for the night and just went upstairs to crash until his next shift in a few hours. At least he was used to short naps.

–

The next morning Serena came in with new ideas on how to narrow down their search. She was fresh-eyed and excited and Jared took one look at her and hid under his desk. "Please do what you must. I'll be back with you after three cups of coffee just so we'll be on the same page."

Serena sat back in her chair and laughed and laughed. People around them turned to look at her curiously. She had been so hard-nosed, kind yes, but hard when she'd first came into their division. Over time she had loosened up and had started in on the games and pranks Jared started. Yet they never heard her laugh like this.

"Must have been some night." Boone commented flicking her ear with the eraser of his pencil. "Whose the guy?"

"I had a productive sleep is all." Serena swatted the pencil away and became serious once more. "Detective Mathieu, please sit at your desk so we can discuss our next moves."

Jared slowly popped his head up, not sure what just happened to change her mood all of a sudden. "Got something?"

"I think I do." She rotated the book so he was looking at the numbers and letters and she held the pad with the reference the son gave them, except this time she held it upside down. He took the pad intending to turn it around but she just slid it down the page until the serial started making connections.

"This one." He paused the descent and frowned. "Close but the last two are wrong."

"Put a sticky next to it, we'll come back if nothing else sticks out." He did the same thing throughout the last decade of purchases and found only two other stickies that were close then he compared them.

Only one was mostly right. Only the last number didn't fit. Serena came to his side and compared the two and turned the pad right side up again. She made a small change and held it by it again. They matched. "That's not really protocol." He commented as he stood, grabbing his gear and then paused, just because they had a match didn't mean they knew who it was.

"It might not be but I figured if the number got blurred a little it might make sense. It's the same number but when held upside down it makes a b instead of an h."

"So we're closer."

Serena gave a nod as she looked up the person who supposedly purchased the book. It was dated a month previous, any number of things could have happened in the meantime. There was an address but no phone number. "Now that's odd."

"Want to go for a drive?"

They found themselves in an interesting part of the Q. Serena lived not too far from here but her place didn't look anything like these. Here the streets were lined with whatever was on hand at the time and then made to look good. One house could be pink with green shutters for doors while the next were intricate wrought iron Of course there were several regular-type doors too but Serena always loved walking down here during the day. There were balconies upper-floor patios.

It was like being in the suburb while still retaining that uniquely city flair. She didn't think she'd ever move out of the Q. Her family had been there for generations, almost as long as the city existed. Jared's had moved in a century later and he'd chosen to move out again.

"Do you have to be the stereotypical Q-ter?" Jared asked with annoyance as they walked up to a house she had walked passed a dozen times in the last week. "Stop judging me with those eyes about my decision to move out. It's done and done with. I like my apartment."

"But its just so small and matches the thousand other apartments in the X."

"I knew I shouldn't have told you about the problems last night." Jared knocked on the door. "While I know its a pain and is small at least the plumbing always works."

"Not always." Serena shrugged knocking again when there wasn't an answer. "My house is old, it goes with the territory."

"Your house is giant and a lot of work. I prefer to hand off the problems to my landlady rather than waste my precious few hours at home doing repairs." Not that Serena had too many repairs she had to work on with the house. Her brother usually took care of them or she just turned those big blue eyes onto Kyle or some other sap and they'd be helping out. Jared turned to the door and pounded. "Open up! We have a few questions we'd like to ask you!"

Serena was already slipping around the side of the house in case he chose to do a runner. He wouldn't be fast enough and she could hear more pounds against the door. Perhaps it would have been best to see if the man was at work first. She just didn't want to sit through another stakeout.

The guy nearly bowled her over in his haste to get away. Serena could have told him that he was going the wrong way if he wanted to flee the cops, but instead she read him his Miranda rights as she pressed a knee into his back and cuffed him. Jared just swung around the bend after she slid one iron bracelet onto his wrist and was sliding home the second. He'd heard her words even when he was far away.

Jared helped her to haul him to his feet. "Are you going to tell us where the books are or do we have to ransack your house?"

The guy remained quiet even as they took him back to the front of the house to help him into the back seat. He was quiet the whole way back to the precinct and lawyer-ed up right away. Serena didn't care, she was back at the house while Jared dealt with the interview. She had several officers combing the house with her and a warrant in her back pocket for anyone who came investigating.

By the time she got back the books had been found and stored into evidence to be tagged and compared with the numbers in the book. Jared leaned back in his seat with his feet propped up onto the desk and offered her one of his devastating smiles.

Serena rolled her eyes. "What do you need?"

"He won't talk to me, only to the pretty detective who knows how to hold her own."

While that was usually true, Serena had just gotten lucky that time, she had just used his own weight against him along with his momentum. "So the great charm didn't work?"

"It doesn't always work. Sometimes they're fixated on someone, like he is with you or they refuse to talk, seeing through the pretty looks. Or they're you."

"Oh you get me to confess to far more than I like. I just don't find you attractive enough to ruin our partnership." She hesitated in the hallway near the interview room. "You'll be in the other room watching?"

"Of course, got to make sure you don't screw up any of my cases." He ignored her earlier statement, there was nothing to be said, she was right.

"Oh so they're all your cases now, are they?" She bantered with him as they headed towards the interview room.

"You know it." He slipped into the room behind the mirror and took a stance to watch and be able to move quickly if he was needed. For whoever needed it.

Serena entered the room with the typical items needed for taking a confession. "I hear you missed me."

"You're smaller than I remember."

A slight shrug. "When you're getting your ass handed to you, your opponent always seems bigger and stronger."

"Yeah but you're just a tiny thing." He lifted his hands but his movement was restricted from the cuffs. "Do I really need such extreme cuffing?"

"I'd rather not find out that I needed them. You know the saying, don't you? You're a collector of so many literary books. What made this one so important?"

"I didn't do anything. I'm being set up. Yesterday someone broke into my home and today when I heard the pounding I thought someone was coming back. I didn't know what you wanted, you didn't state your purpose right away and I fled in terror for my own life."

Serena sat back in her chair and eyed him. "That's a good defense. One of the better ones I've ever heard."

"You really think so?" He sounded so hopeful that Jared smirked behind the screen, knowing she was just going to dash them all.

"I think that's a load of BS. I've heard that excuse far too many times. We know you killed the man in the bookshop. We have your finger prints on the books, you ran after I clearly heard my partner tell you that we were police and you've had the books in your possession. Clearly you've had a beef with the guy. Confess everything and I'm sure we can put in a lighter sentence."

"I didn't- I didn't mean to." He stumbled over his confession, but that's exactly what he did. He confessed. "I just wanted my book but he was obstinate. Said he had another buyer lined up who would pay more. I grabbed the closest thing on hand in my anger and I hit him. I didn't think I even hit him that hard. I just-" He buried his face into his hands, his earlier tough guy act melting.

They made the perfect team which was why it was hard to see her go, despite knowing it was for the best. She found the killer and he got them to confess, even if today's man fixated, it still worked out well. He was reluctant to let her leave but she was probably right, they'd see each other often enough when their cases overlapped. He just hoped his next partner was half as good as she was, the she, she was without her helper.

* * *

EAN: No Darien in this one either, but not to worry, he's showing up, sometime... in the next few episodes. _Promise_.


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